We’ve gotten a bunch of feedback on our article Why the Bubble Burst (And Will it Happen Again?), particularly on RAS (revenues allocated to salaries). This is the key number for analyzing and forecasting the market for players. It is the context for which every deal is made.
But here’s the problem: the data is limited, somewhat spotty, and a bit inconsistent depending on the source. We did a lot of cross checking, and used multiple outlets that have freely available data: the Lahman database, Rod Fort’s site, Doug Pappas’s site, the USA Today salary database, Forbes’s annual baseball estimates, and others.
We have full revenue and payroll info going back to 1982, but even these figures could likely be improved. And before 1982, there is a lot of mixing and matching being done, with only a few seasons having any available data at all. The simplistic version of what we have so far can be viewed here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pIZaUeVpPjYAroeA66JPvMQ
So now we’re turning to you, whether you are an author, blogger, fan, accountant, financial analyst, plumber, waiter, man, woman, child… you get my drift. In the spirit of free data and further research, let’s try to build the best database we can. This doesn’t have to involve just salaries and revenues, it could be total player costs, specific sources of revenue, or anything else you, the reader, can think of.
Let’s get it done, and maybe we can open up a new line of research that could completely change the way we analyze our game.
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